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The best earthbender in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Toph Beifong, begins trending on social media as followers debate how ‘woke’ she is.
Almost a decade and a half for the reason that final episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender aired and the present continues to take pleasure in a large and passionate fanbase– a fanbase that’s at present debating about how a personality like Toph Beifong, often known as the Blind Bandit, can be seen if she had been to be launched in the present day.
“Toph” began trending on social media after a Twitter consumer commented on the present local weather in relation to parts perceived as “woke propaganda.” He wrote, “If a present was launched in the present day the place a disabled woman dominated 90% of fights she was in, was by no means a love curiosity to anybody, and really taught the male protagonist 25% of his fight skillset, they’d name it woke propaganda. Anyway, her identify is Toph.”
The tweet sparked a large dialogue, with a mess of comparisons being drawn between the characters of The Last Airbender and comparable characters in additional up to date exhibits. The debate has up to now seen two primary arguments: Toph is “written nicely” and was not included in what some could consider to be an agenda. The counterpoints being detractors of recent exhibits with an inclusive solid typically criticize a present with out spending sufficient time seeing how these characters are written, and lots of the identical character sorts and persona flaws are nonetheless current in in the present day’s exhibits and are sometimes the goal of “anti-woke” critics. Sokka — who displayed sexist attitudes all through Book 1 — and the Kyoshi Warriors have been used as examples a number of instances.
Creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko not too long ago revealed on the Avatar: Braving the Elements podcast that Toph was initially going to be an older man. In truth, the earthbender introduced within the sequence’ intro sequence was described as a template for who Toph was going to be. Eventually, the creators determined Toph needs to be a younger woman and needed to battle the community for that change.
The sequel sequence, The Legend of Korra went additional with its inclusiveness by hinting at an LGBTQ+ relationship between the titular Avatar and Asami Sato. It needs to be famous the connection was implied and never explicitly introduced on display. DiMartino and Konietzko confirmed the connection was canon and the comics that adopted went on to discover the connection additional. There was comparable debate regarding Korra and Asami’s sexual orientation and “wokeness” when the present’s ending premiered, with some calling the pairing fan service.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is obtainable to stream now on-line and personal on dwelling media.
Source: Twitter
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